Tuesday, May 1, 2018

I'm not a baker. People don't believe me, but it's true. A baker bakes...regularly and with proficiency.This is what I bake; Gigi's Carrot Cake for my husband's birthday and Father's day. The end. LOLI sometimes bake things at Christmas time. And occasionally a brownie mix, but for the most part, my husband does the baking; Yes, I'm lucky. He's really good at it!So this Crepe cake intrigued me. Imagine your favorite crepes
& fillings, piled up into a
beautiful layered masterpiece, ready for any special occasion!Wonderfully simple and customizable for your favorite
combinations!

All you need is a big pile of crepes, a
filling and something pretty for the top.

There is a few tips that are helpful and will
keep your crepe cake from sliding apart and tasting delicious!

Any crepe recipe will work here, but here is
my tried & true Betty Crocker recipe I've been making for 36 years!

Basic Crepes

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups milk

2 Tbsp oil,
margarine or butter, melted

1 cup Pillsbury's
Best All purpose or Unbleached flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp Sugar (if
making dessert crepes)

In a medium bowl
(I use my blender) beat eggs slightly. Add
remaining ingredients and beat until smooth.
Cover batter and refrigerate for about 2 hours, this will help the air to settle from
the batter and give you a smoother crepe.

A few drops of
water sprinkled on the pan sizzle and bounce when heat is just right. Grease pan
lightly with butter. I use a
bunched up paper towel that I dip in butter and rub on pan before each
crepe. You might not need the non-stick
power of butter, but it'll brown up better with it.

Pour about 1/3
cup batter into pan, tilting pan to spread evenly. When crepe is light brown and set, turn to
brown the other side for just a minute.
Remove from pan. Repeat with
remaining batter to make about 14 crepes. stacking cooked crepes.

Refridgerate for
a few days in fridge or freeze, layer crepes between wax paper or parchment
paper. Wrap and store up to 3 months.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

Next and most
importantly is a stabilized whipped cream...it's also called fortified whipped
cream. This is the trick you need so
your crepes don't fall off of each other.

This is a
must-have recipe for your kitchen, especially if you love desserts with whipped
cream in them. It's very easy and just a
few extra steps than regular whipped cream.
I took a bunch of step-by-step pictures for this (my husband is my cream
maker!), but decided to just share a link to a great tutorial at Our Best Bites website.

Flavor

This is the fun
part! What is your favorite crepe
filling? I love Strawberry &
Lemon. But I also fancy some traditional
Nutella & Banana on occasion. I also
thought Blueberry & lemon would be a good combo.

I'm giving you my
recipes for these versions, but think of these as a master recipe which allows
you to be creative and do your own thing.

Assembly & decoration

It is very
important to let this cake set up in the fridge for at least 6 hours and
preferably overnight. This is
great! I love making things ahead of
time. Do, however, leave the top and decoration
for right before serving.

Lastly,
You can change up the size of you crepe cakes. Just use a small 4 or 5" pan, or cut out
3" circles from a regular crepe.

Little individual
crepe cakes would be perfect for a dinner party, bridal or baby shower!

Strawberry/Lemon Mascarpone Crepe Cake

(light, sweet and a little
tangy, perfect for Spring)

15 - 20 Crepes

1 cup pureed
strawberries

1 cup lemon curd
(see recipe below or use store bought)

1 cup mascarpone
(or Cream cheese), softened & whipped

9 cups stabilized
whipped cream (see recipe link above)

2 cups sliced
strawberries

8 similar sized
strawberries, cut in half through the green.

powdered sugar

optional: 1/4 cup
candied lemon peel

Directions:

Make crepes (see
recipe above) and store in fridge or layer between parchment or wax paper and
store in freezer for up to 3 months.

Fold strawberry
puree with 2 cups of stabilized whipped cream and 1/2 cup mascarpone. Taste.
Strawberries can be sweet or tart, or somewhere in between. If tart, add a Tbsp of powdered sugar a
little bit at a time until you get the sweetness you like. Continue folding in 2 more cups of stabilized
whipped cream. Cover and put in fridge
until ready to use.

Fold Lemon Curd
with 1 cup of whipped cream and 1/2 cup mascarpone. Finish folding remaining 2 cups of whipped
cream. You will have a little bit less
lemon mousse than strawberry mousse because you will start and finish with the
strawberry mousse. Reserve the last 3
cups of whipped cream for piping on top.

Lay one crepe on
serving dish and place about 1/2 cup strawberry mousse in center. Use a metal spatula to spread mousse all over
surface and pushing out towards edges.

For extra
strawberry flavor, I thinly sliced large strawberries (Costco!) on my mandolin,
or just practice your cutting skills. I
placed these on top of each layer of strawberry mousse.

Place another
crepe on top and repeat with lemon mousse.
Continue alternating between strawberry and lemon mousse until you run
out. finish with a crepe on top. As you are layering, make sure the cake is
laying even. Press down gently on the
side that is uneven if necessary. Cover
lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight (preferable)

Finish by dusting
top of cake with powdered sugar. Pipe
rest of whipped cream into rosettes (one per serving). Sprinkles with candied lemon peel and place
half of a strawberry (if large) or a whole (if small) into each rosette. Slice & serve!

I spooned on the Nutella Ganache (see recipe below), piped some cream and decorated with fresh blueberries and Lindor Blueberrie chocolates that I broke into pieces.

Nutella & Banana Crepe Cake

(rich & chocolately with
a Nutella Ganache)

15
- 20 Crepes

8 cups stabilized
whipped cream (see recipe link above)

1 3/4 cups
Nutella divided

1/2 cup heavy
cream + 2 Tbsp

1 tsp kosher salt

6 bananas

8-12 Ferrero
Rocher Hazelnut chocolates

Directions:

Make crepes (see
recipe above) and store in fridge or layer between parchment or wax paper and
store in freezer for up to 3 months.

Place 1 cup
nutella in microwave on low temp for 20-30 seconds. Keep checking as you don't want it warm at
all, just loosened up a bit. Fold into 1
cup of stabilized whipped cream. Fold
another cup of whipped cream into Nutella mixture. Finish by folding rest of whipped cream for
mousse. Cover and put in fridge until
ready to use.

Lay one crepe on
serving dish and place about 1/2 cup Nutella mousse in center. Use a metal spatula to spread mousse all over
surface and pushing out towards edges.

Slice a banana
thinly (do this one at a time, otherwise bananas will brown.

Cover top of
mousse with one layer of sliced bananas.

Place another
crepe on top and repeat with more mousse.

Continue
alternating between just mousse and mousse & banana slices until you run
out, finish with a crepe on top. As you are layering, make sure the cake is
laying even. Press down gently on the
side that is uneven if necessary. Cover
lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight (preferable)

Once ready to
serve, place rest of Nutella (1/2 cup heavy cream + 2 Tbsp) in a bowl. Place 1/2 cup heavy cream in a pot and heat
(but not boil). Pour over Nutella and
mix until smooth. Mix in salt.

Check consistency
of ganache. It should drop from a spoon smoothly (no gaps), but not
runny. Start by pouring onto center top
of cake. It should naturally move
towards edges of cake and drip down. You
might need to move it in this direction if your ganache is tight. That's ok!
It takes a bit of practice to know the right consistency.

Use the rest of
the stabilized whipped cream to pipe rosettes on top of the cake (as many as
you wish slices). Unwrap Ferrero Rocher
chocolates and tuck one & a thick slice of banana into the center of each
rosette. Optionally sprinkle Chocolate sprinkles over
top of cake. A friend had given me a box
of De Ruijter Belgium sprinkles...they are actually use this on toast! My kind of toast!

Directions: I like to
make curd and candied lemon peel at the same time to get the most out of the
lemons.

Start by grating 1 lemon.
cover and set aside. You'll be
adding this to the curd once it's finished cooking.

Peel
rest of lemons with a zesting tool like this.
It will give you thin strips.
Alternatively, you can cut by hand, but you'll have to do it after
you've juiced. This tool is from
pampered chef.

After you have zested lemons, juice them. You should have a little over 2/3 cup juice.

Beat
butter & sugar in a mixing bowl until
light and fluffy. Add one egg at
a time and beat in between additions.
Beat for a minute. Add lemon
juice slowly and mix until incorporated.
It will look curdled at this point.
No worries. Place mixture into a
thick bottomed pan and heat on low, stirring, until the mixture is smooth.

Increase heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Don't let it boil. It is now curd! Add zest, mix in. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool. It will store in fridge for a week or you can freeze for a few months.

to make blueberry sauce, simmer fresh or frozen blueberries
in a pan for 5-7 minutes until soft.
Mash and strain.

Candied Lemon
Peel/zest

Place zested lemon peel into a pan of water, just covering
and bring to a boil. Let it boil hard
for 30 seconds. drain peel in a
colander. Place back in pan, again cover
with water and bring to a boil, hard for 30 seconds. Drain.
This process removes any bitterness in the lemon.

Pour 2 cups of water into same pan and add 1 1/2 cups
sugar. Heat until sugar dissolves. Add lemon peel and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes (If you
use the tool I recommend above, you'll have thin pieces of lemon and it doesn't
take long to cook. To make sure, remove
one and bite it, if it's easy to bite, they are done. If you are using larger pieces of peel,
you'll want to cook a little longer.

Drain from pan (you can save the liquid, it's like lemon syrup)
and place lemon peel on a piece of parchment and cool for 10-15 minutes. It should feel a bit tacky. Toss into some super fine sugar to coat. Place back on parchment and let dry for
several hours.